Solomon Maimon: An Autobiography Part 15

[3] Vol. v., chap. 7.

[4] The volume bears the somewhat quaint t.i.tle in full:--_Maimoniana, oder Rhapsodien Zur Charakteristik Salomon Maimon's_. Aus Seinem Privatleben gesammelt von Sabattia Joseph Wolff, M.D. Berlin, gedruckt bei G. Hayn, 1813.

[5] The only logical connection is the fact, that the writings of Maimonides formed the most powerful influence in the intellectual development of Maimon. In ill.u.s.tration of this he writes:--"My reverence for this great teacher went so far, that I regarded him as the ideal of a perfect man, and looked upon his teachings as if they had been inspired with Divine Wisdom itself. This went so far, that, when my pa.s.sions began to grow, and I had sometimes to fear lest they might seduce me to some action inconsistent with those teachings, I used to employ, as a proved antidote, the abjuration, 'I swear, by the reverence which I owe my great teacher, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, not to do this act.' And this vow, so far as I can remember, was always sufficient to restrain me." _Lebensgeschichte_, Vol. ii., pp. 3-4.

[6] That is, of course, the seventeenth.--_Trans._

[7] Maimon himself nowhere mentions the date or place of his birth; but Wolff says that he was born at Nesvij, in Lithuania, about the year 1754 (_Maimoniana, p. 10_). _Trans._

[8] This word is explained below, at the beginning of the next chapter.

[9] The customary Jewish salutation.

[10] The original is "ein Kalamankenes Leibserdak,"--a provincialism which, I believe, is substantially rendered in this translation.--_Trans._

[11] Till quite recently it had been almost forgotten that one of the commonest manifestations of fanaticism against the Jews, especially in Eastern Europe, was to charge them with the murder of Christian children for the use of some horrid religious rite, and that scarcely ever was the dead body of a child found in the neighbourhood of a Jewish community without some outburst of this cruel suspicion, ending in an indiscriminate ma.s.sacre of the Jews by the infuriated mob. It is a singularly creditable proof of the liberal government of Stephen Batory,--one of the ablest monarchs who ever sat on the throne of Poland,--that, so long ago as 1576, he issued an edict prohibiting the imputation of this crime to the Jews, as being utterly inconsistent with the principles of their religion. Yet, in spite of this enactment, the fanatical suspicion continued to display itself at frequent intervals.

Milman supposed it had been finally quelled by the ukase of the Russian Government in 1835, which went in the same direction as the earlier prohibition of the Polish king (_History of the Jews_, vol. iii., p.

389). What would have been his astonishment, had he lived to learn that, half a century after he thought it extinguished, this ancient delusion was to revive, that an Hungarian court was to spend thirty one days in the solemn trial of a Jewish family on the charge of sacrificing a Christian girl in their synagogue, that a learned professor in the Imperial and Royal University of Prague was to write in defence of the charge, and that the trial was to form the subject of an extensive controversial literature in the language of the most learned nation in the world! An interesting account of this famous trial at Tisza Eszlar, as well as of the literature connected with it, will be found in an article by Dr. Wright, on _The Jews and the Malicious Charge of Human Sacrifice_ in the _Nineteenth Century_, for November, 1883.--_Trans._

[12] It seems that Maimon gives a euphemistic explanation of this word, as I am told its real meaning makes much more intelligible its extreme offensiveness to his mother.--_Trans._

[13] The original runs: "Der Verstand sucht bloss zu _fa.s.sen_, die Einbildungskraft aber zu _umfa.s.sen_."--_Tr._

[14] That is, _The Branch_ (or _Offspring_) _of David_. See Jeremiah xxiii. 5; x.x.xiii. 15; Isaiah xi. 1.--_Trans._

[15] The Hebrew word for a globe.

[16] This rabbi belonged to a family of eminent linguists. The father, Joseph Kimchi, was one of the numerous Jews who were obliged to flee from Spain to escape the cruel persecutions of the Mohades about the middle of the twelfth century. He left two sons who both followed his favourite studies. The elder, Moses, has the credit of having educated his younger and more ill.u.s.trious brother, David, whose Hebrew grammar and dictionary continued in general use among scholars for centuries.

Kimchi is said to have been powerfully influenced, not only by Maimonides, but also by Aben Esra, who preceded him by nearly a century, and who was one of the most learned scholars, as well as one of the most versatile authors, of his time. (Jost's _Geschichte des Judenthums_, vol. ii., pp. 419-423; and vol. iii, pp. 30-31).--_Trans._

[17] That is, about 100 English miles.--_Trans._

[18] See above, p. 14.--_Trans._

[19] Solomon ben Isaac, as he is more correctly named, or Raschi, as he is also called, was an eminent Talmudic scholar of Troyes in the latter half of the eleventh century. It was his son-in-law, Mer, and the three sons of Mer, who may be said to have begun the Tosaphoth, referred to in the text.--_Trans._

[20] As it was at one time throughout all Christendom, and probably under every civilisation at a certain stage of its history.--_Trans._

[21] This seems to be Job xxvii. 17, which in our Authorised Version runs:--"He (a wicked man) may prepare it (raiment), but the just shall put it on." Maimon seems to render it from memory:--"Der Gottlose schafft sich an, und der Fromme bekleidet sich damit."--_Trans._

[22] Evidently viii., 12, rendered in our Authorised Version, "Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand (pieces of silver), and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred." Maimon translates apparently from memory, "Die tausend Gulden sind fur dich, Salomo, und die Zweihundert fur die, die seine Fruchte bewahren." In my rendering of this the p.r.o.noun "his" must be understood in its old English lat.i.tude as either neuter or masculine.--_Trans._

[23] The bulk of the gift explains its costliness. "The Babylonian Talmud is about four times as large as that of Jerusalem. Its thirty-six treatises now cover, in our editions, printed with the most prominent commentaries (Rashi and Tosafoth), exactly 2947 folio leaves in twelve folio volumes." (E. Deutsch's _Literary Remains_, p. 41).--_Trans._

[24] Maimon gives merely the initial "R" of this name; but as he has already (Chap. i.) told us that his prince was Radzivil, there is not much mystery in this artifice.--_Trans._

[25] This horror of memory tormented Maimon to the end of his days. "He dreamed often that he was in Poland again, deprived of all his books; and Lucius metamorphosed into an a.s.s was not in a more pitiable plight.

'From this agony,' said Maimon, 'I was usually aroused by a loud cry, and my joy was indescribable on finding that it was only a dream.'"

(_Maimoniana_, p. 94). "He once received a visit from his brother, for whom he was deeply affected. Poor as he was himself, Maimon kept him a long while, gave him clothing and everything else that he could, besides procuring from some friends enough money to pay his travelling expenses.

Above all, he told me, he was affected at letting his brother go back into the wilderness; and if he had not had a wife and children at home, he would have tried to keep him beside himself." (_Ibid._, p.

175).--_Trans._

[26] It was probably a reminiscence of this labour of deciphering, that led to the following outburst of sympathy:--"One day Maimon read in an English work, that the author had only commenced to learn the ABC when he was eighteen years of age, and that the first book which fell into his hands was one of Newton's works. His master (for he was a servant) came upon him at this task, and asked, 'What are you doing with that?

you can't read?' 'O yes,' he replied, 'I have learnt to read, and I began with the most difficult subjects.' Maimon read this in my presence with tears in his eyes." (_Maimoniana_, pp. 230-1).--_Trans._

[27] Both of these Cabbalists belonged to the sixteenth century. The former, as his name implies, belonged to Cordova in Spain; the latter, to the German community in Jerusalem (_Jost's Geschichte des Judenthums_, Vol. iii., pp. 137-140).--_Trans._

[28] Rabbi Mer?s teacher was Elisha ben Abuyah, "the Faust of the Talmud," as he has been strikingly styled by Mr. Deutsch. The Talmud preserves a beautiful story ill.u.s.trative of the devoted affection which Mer continued to cherish for his apostate master. Four men, so runs the legend, entered _Paradise_; that is, according to Talmudic symbolism, they entered upon the study of that secret science with its bewildering labyrinth of speculative dreams, through which it is given only to a few rare spirits to find their way. Of these four, "one beheld and died, one beheld and lost his senses, one destroyed the young plants, one only entered in peace and came out in peace." The destroyer of the young plants was Elisha ben Abuyah. Once he was pa.s.sing the ruins of the temple on the great day of atonement, and heard a voice within "moaning like a dove,"--"All men shall be forgiven this day save Elisha ben Abuyah who, knowing me, has betrayed me." After his death flames hovered incessantly over his grave, until his loving disciple threw himself upon it and swore an oath of devout self-sacrifice, that he would not partake of the joys of heaven without his master, nor move from the spot until his master's soul had found forgiveness before the Throne of Grace. See Emanuel Deutsch's _Literary Remains_, p. 15; and Jost's _Geshichte des Judenthums_, Vol. ii., pp. 102-4.

[29] _The Gates of Light._--_Trans._

[30] "Thus saith the Lord" in the English version.--_Trans._

[31] About 150 English miles.--_Trans._

[32] Highpriest about the time of Antiochus the Great, that is, the first half of the third century before Christ.--_Trans._

[33] Also named below Jehudah Hana.s.si or Hakades, died probably in 219 or 220 A.D.--_Trans._

[34] _Rabbina_ is a contraction for Rabbi Abina and _Raba.s.si_ for Rabbi Ashe. Maimon puts Abina first, but he was the younger of the two. They both belonged to the fifth century.--_Trans._

[35] This seems to be Psalm cxix., 126, rendered in our Authorised Version:--"It is time for thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law." See Mendelssohn's _Jerusalem_, Vol. ii., p. iii., (Samuels'

translation).--_Trans._

[36] _Charakteristik der Asiatischen Nationen_, Theil ii., pp. 159-160.

[37] "And Kinah and Dimonah and Adadah" in the English Authorised Version.--_Trans._

[38] Here apparently Maimon makes a slip. He seems to forget the pa.s.sage he had selected for ill.u.s.tration; and his eye, if not his memory, glances at the last word in verse 30, instead of verse 22.--_Trans._

[39] Probably Isaiah x.x.xiii., 6.--_Trans._

[40] Psalm, lx.x.xi., 9.--_Trans._

[41] In the original, "Das Kind mit dem Bade ausschutten."--_Trans._

[42] In the same way a fool, called Chosek, was going to starve the city of Lemberg, against which he was enraged; and for this purpose he placed himself behind the wall, in order to blockade the city with his body.

The result of the blockade, however, was that he nearly died of hunger, while the city knew nothing whatever of a famine.

[43] In our times, when so much is said both _pro_ and _contra_ about secret societies, I believe that the history of a particular secret society, in which I was entangled, though but a short time, should not be pa.s.sed over in this sketch of my life.

[44] That is, of course, the 17th century.--_Trans._

[45] _Baalshem_ is one who occupies himself with the practical Cabbalah, that is, with the conjuration of spirits and the writing of amulets, in which the names of G.o.d and of many sorts of spirits are employed.

[46] As I never attained the rank of a superior in this society, the exposition of their plan cannot be regarded as a fact verified by experience, but merely as an inference arrived at by reflection. How far this inference is well founded, can be determined merely by a.n.a.logy according to the rules of probability.

[47] The ingenuity of this interpretation consists in the fact, that in Hebrew ??? may stand for the infinitive of _play_, as well as for a _musical instrument_, and that the prefix ? may be translated either _as_, in the sense of _when_, or _as_, in the sense of _like_. The superiors of this sect, who _wrenched pa.s.sages of the Holy Scriptures from their context_, regarding themselves as merely vehicles of their teachings, selected accordingly that interpretation of this pa.s.sage, which fitted best their principle of _self-annihilation_ before G.o.d.